The Call of Caddaja
by carlgluftgmail.com
Summary: The War Doctor has an unexpected detour on the way to the next battlefield in the War, and comes to fave an awakening Great Old One.
1. Chapter 1

A wheezing and groaning sound filled the air upon the dusty plain. A tall blue box with a flashing light slowly faded into view. The light on top stopped flashing and an old man in a battered leather coat and herringbone patterned red scarf exited it. He had a craggy, careworn face and startlingly green eyes. His silvery hair was brushed up in a tuft in front and he wore a bushy white beard and mustache.

"This isn't right," he growled. "This isn't Sector Primus Six. The temporal fall out in the time vortex must be bad, old girl. It's not your fault. Take some time to rest. I'm going to try and find a decent cup of tea. The War has really affected your food machine."

With an affectionate pat of the blue box, the old man walked towards a small town he saw on the horizon.

"American old west," muttered the old man when he neared the town. "Or one of those retro colonies they have. Pretty certain this is Earth though."

As he neared the main street of the tiny town several men on horses road towards him, each brandishing a long revolver.

"Good afternoon," said the old man in the most pleasant voice he could manage. "I take it, you are the authorities here, judging by this tin stars on you."

"I'm Sheriff Davis," said the man in the center of the group. "What brings you here?"

"My feet."

"You're English."

"I am?"

"Perhaps you don't understand our way of speaking."

"The TARDIS' translators aren't infallible."

"What do you want in this town? Do you understand that, Grandad."

"Grandad, indeed!" spat the old man. "Is it against your law for a traveller to have a drink?"

"It so ain't so long as you're gone by sundown," said Davis as he turned his horse to ride off. "We'll be watching, Mister."

"Suspicious lot," whispered the old man as he headed for s building marked 'Saloon'. "Looks like I could get a drink here."

"Good day, stranger," said a young lady as soon as the old man entered the saloon. She had dark hair and eyes, and wore a dress the was falling off her shoulders. "What'll you have?"

"A cup of tea, please," said the old man as he sat down at a table.

"You're not from around here, are you," she giggled.

"That's usually the defining characteristic of a stranger. "

"You're English, aren't you?"

"That's what I've been told."

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have tea."

"What do you have?"

"Whiskey."

"No, thank you."

"I've got some coffee on in back. Would you like a cup."

"Yes, please," said the old man a bit more politely.

The girl came back with a steaming cup of black coffee. The old man took a sip, smiled and said, "Thank you. You Americans make a good cup of coffee. You are Americans aren't you? I'm a bit rusty on my history. I haven't had much call for it during the War."

"Were you a soldier?" asked the girl sitting down with him. "My daddy was in the war."

The old man looked a bit surprised, then he smiled, "You are referring to the American Civil War."

"I guess so. I'm Rachel. Who're you?"

"No one."

"You don't have a name? Everyone has a name, Mister."

"I don't. I lost mine during the War."

"Well, it's over now, these past three years."

"Not for me."

"I'm sorry. The war is like that. My daddy died in it, so I never forget it."

"I'm sorry for your loss," said the old man warmly. He took another sip of coffee, and changed the subject. "The Sheriff didn't seem to care for me much."

Don't take it personally," said Rachel. "He's a good, God-fearing man. It's just that strange shapes have been seen about, and folks have gone missing."

"Missing people again," the old man muttered to himself.

"What's that, Mister?"

"Is there any pattern to there disappearance?"

"Just the old house. I would go near it."

"Not even to rescue a friend."

Rachel's lip trembled and a tear ran down here cheek. "I'd give anything to see Tallulah again."

"Tallulah?" asked the old man thoughtfully. "That's an unusual name, but I've heard it before. Come on, Rachel. Let's go to that old house and find your friend."

"The Sun's soon to set!" cried Rachel. "It's not safe."

"Sure, it'll be, Rachel. I'll be with you."


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was already set by the time Rachel and the old man reached the old house. It was a tall, sinister looking building perched high upon an unusually domed hill. Rachel shivered as she looked upon it in the light of a full moon.

"This is an unusual hill," said the old man as they climbed it to reach the old house. "It's not natural."

"My mother's a Caddo indian," explained Rachel as she lit the lantern she brought along. "The Caddos built this mound upon an ancient site where a monster was imprisoned long before the Great Spirit made men."

"Let me guess," said the old man as he opened the door and led a trembling Rachel inside the house. "It sleeps beneath the Earth, in its prison until the stars are right and it can love again."

"You know the Caddo stories? Are you a medicine man."

"I was, but no more. Stories of old ones, godlike being a from the primordial universe abound in worlds all over the Universe."

"You've been to other worlds?"

"Do you believe that?" asked the old man as they explored the dark rooms of the abandoned, old house.

"The others wouldn't, but my mother taught me the Caddo ways. If you were once a medicine man, than the power to travel to other worlds is yours."

"We need to find a cellar," said the old man as they circuited the house again."

"The folks in these parts don't build cellars," explained Rachel as she followed the old man as he opened every door and hatch he came to. "All the clay in these parts makes digging cellars hard."

"But this is a manmade mound, not hard ground," explained that old man as he opened one last door. "There it is! This way, Rachel. Mind your step."

They descended a flight of old, wooden stairs down into a deep shaft. A tunnel exited the shaft, and the old man, inspecting a series of wooden supports in the tunnels, said, "This is a mine!"

"We're a mining town," said Rachel. "But I didn't think it extended out this far."

"Quiet!" ordered the old man as he pulled Rachel down.

Three lumbering figures walked into an illuminated section of the shaft Where some suspended lanterns were hung. The creatures, a little taller than men" turned about and looked upon them. They were made of stone, and eyes of cold rock looked upon the old man and Rachel


	3. Chapter 3

The cold stone eyes of the rock man slowly turned away from the old man and Rachel and it walked away, following its three comrade down a mine tunnel.

"This way," whispered the old man as he followed the stone men down the tunnel.

Though Rachel was afraid to follow those monsters, she was more afraid to be alone. Carefully, she crept after the old man, and, hand in hand, the two followed the stone men through the dimly lit mine tunnels.

After a while, they came to a massive, natural cavern. The mine lanterns were missing there, but a sickly greenish glow poured forth from a great pick, half chocked with rubble. A small group of humans, dirty and dressed on tattered clothes, were excavation the pit shaft of the enormous amount of rubble.

Rachel barely restrained herself from screaming as several giant tentacles lashed out of the cleared section of the pit and writhed about the cavern.

"The legends are true" said the old man. "If we only knew it's name, we might be able to bind it again."

"Why its name?" asked a terrified Rachel, physically shaking in horror.

"The legends surrounding these primal monsters suggest that to use its name one can bend these creatures to one's will."

"Or summon it. Saying its name might release it further, or set it loose upon God's green earth."

"Rachel, do the Caddo legends name this creature?"

"Yes," she said timidly. "Please, don't make me say it. We might call it right out of its prison, or..."

"Rachel, it'll soon be loose. Its awake. That means the stars are right. All it needs is to have that crumb cleared out of rubble, and it will come forth and wreck madness upon the h man race, this place, and all the universe. We have to take that chance. I should have at least enough of a telepathic capacity to at least slow it down. Now, Rachel, please! What is its name ?".

"Caddaja," gasped Rachel. Immediately the tentacles lurched forth out of the almost excavated pit, latched upon the ledge and tried to pull itself up out of the pit.

"Run!" cried the old man as he took Rachel's hand and ran.

The human slaves in the cavern panicked, and despite the flailing tentacles of Caddaja and its minions, the self one people, they fled. Several nearly ran into the old man and Rachel. One, a girl about Rachel's age, did so.

"Sorry, sweetie," said a familiar voice coming from the golden haired young lady.

"Tallulah!" cried Rachel. "You're alive."

"Tallulah!" cried the old man putting both hands to his head. "Of course, the American Girls in London. But that's fifty years from now. What's going on here? Who are you."


	4. Chapter 4

"What's he talking about, Rachel?" asked Tallulah. "Who Is he?"

"He's a soldier from the war," explained Rachel. "He's going to rescue us from the monster."

"But you can't be the same girl," complained the old man. "It's ridiculous!"

"Are you coining to save us or not, Captain Grumpy?"

"Captain Grumpy? What's going on?"

"There's a tentacles monster bigger than a house breaking loose out of mine shaft. What do we do?"

"We have bury it again."

"Dynamite!"

"It is a good idea, isn't it?"

"No, Captain Grumpy. We can use the mine's dynamite to bring the roof down upon it"

"Brilliant idea, Tallulah! Now, get Rachel and the others to the surface. You can show her, right Rachel."

"Yes, Captain," replied a shaken Rachel.

"I'm not a captain."

"But you sure is grumpy" said Tallulah.

"I am not!" shouted the angry old man. "You need to get them out, now, Tallulah. I have to stay behind and detonate the dynamite. We're too far from the stairs out to light the fuses and get out on time. I'll do this. Now, go!"

"No, you ain't," said Tallulah. "If you do so, I'll stay to. Are you going to kill us both."

"We have to seal its prison again. Oh, my God! Fine. Well find some other way, perhaps using its name in a ritual. I don't know. Let's just go.

"Now, you're talking, Captain. Come on guys! This way out!"

As soon as Tallulah said that, all the captives headed their way.

"This way, " said the old man as they surrounded him.

As they retraced their way to the stairs, and up them, a horrible noise filled the cavern. Rachel grabbed the old man's' arm, and asked, "What is that?"

"It's almost loose," said the old man as they piled into the abandoned house. "Where's Tallulah."

Suddenly the house shook as the sound of an explosion echoed throughout the place.

"Oh my God," gasped the old man. "Tallulah."

"Oh, Tallulah," sobbed Rachel as she buried her face into the old man's leather coat.

A few hours later, in the light of a new sunrise, Rachel and the old man were outside his blue box.

"Must you leave?" asked Rachel.

"I need to be back to the War," said the old man. "People are depending upon me. Tallulah's sacrifice has imprisoned Caddaja again. Good heavens! What is this?"

The old man pulled out a diamond pendant on a gold chain.

"That's Tallulah's necklace," said Rachel. "She's had it since she was a child."

"She was your friend," said the old man holding out the pendant. "You should have this."

"No, she meant it for you. That's why she slipped it in your pocket, not mine."

"I won't forget her," said the old man opening the door of the blue box. "Or you."

Seeing a vast, circular room beyond the door, Rachel gasped, and said, "You are a medicine man."

"Once," said the old man entering his box, "but now, no more."

To Rachel's further amazement, the blue box faded out of sight with a wheezing and groaning sound.

The End.


End file.
